


Spaghetti

by kaianieves



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Cooking, F/F, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-03-30
Packaged: 2019-12-26 17:29:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18286940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaianieves/pseuds/kaianieves
Summary: Patience does the dishes; Kaia makes dinner.





	Spaghetti

Patience didn't know what she was doing. Well- she  _did_ know. She was standing at the sink, letting warm water run over dirty dishes, staring ahead blankly. They say when you're caught in a stare, your brain is working too hard. Patience had thought she'd left that part of her behind; the overachieving over thinker, with more than a mild perfection complex. Apparently she was wrong.

It's not that she wanted to be perfect. No, Patience just wanted to be  _something._ Good, bad, bitchy, blissful- anything to get the gears in her mind going again. Ever since Alex broke up with her, everything had ground to a halt. Though considering Alex had left to get away from all of this- and by "all of this" she meant hunting- Patience supposed everything had stopped working when Claire died.

Jody was gone, too. After Claire, she buried herself in her work. One night she didn't come home. They watched on the local news station as her face was plastered up on screen next to shots of a pretty mangled patrol truck. Jody's patrol truck. A snow plow wasn't paying attention, didn't notice her and  _bam-_ just like that, their lives were scrapped just like the vehicle was.

Donna was a state away, but unreachable most of the time. She had her work too. Patience also got the impression that she didn't want to see them- Patience or Kaia. They were just reminders of the lives lost. Flames of a fire that would logically burn out without the coals, but miraculously didn't.

Now it was Patience and Kaia. Just them, in a big empty house. The water was still running over the plates, slowly washing away the food stuck to them. The sound of a floorboard creaking snapped Patience out of her daze. She could have done it herself, she just didn't particularly want to. Slamming her hand down on the tap handle, Patience shut off the water.

"Sorry," mumbled Kaia from behind her. "I didn't mean to scare you."

Patience closed her eyes for a moment, taking a quick, deep breath. Then she turned around, facing the other woman. Kaia had a grocery bag in her arms. "It's fine," Patience said. Kaia gave a quick nod, walking towards the counter next to Patience and the sink. She set the paper bag down. "What did you get?" Patience reached inside, not waiting for Kaia to answer.

"Tomato sauce, noodles. I thought I'd make spaghetti," Kaia replied. She and Patience had never been particularly close, but in the absence of other people, they had gotten to know each other fairly well. At first, only because they had to- it was was talk to each other or suffer painfully in silence. Kaia apparently liked pop punk music; Patience preferred indie bands she randomly found online. Patience had been on-track to graduate valedictorian at her high school- the first black woman to ever; Kaia never finished her sophomore year.

Random information that made up insignificant parts of their personalities and lives. It wasn't how much they ached for a partner that wasn't there, either dead or- and Patience hated even thinking this- had abandoned them. They didn't speak of the mother figure they'd loved and lost, making a painful, gaping hole even bigger than before.

Another thing Patience had learned was that Kaia couldn't cook for shit. Patience was good at making pancakes, but breakfast for dinner got very boring (and even a bit sickening) very quickly. Then one day, Patience came home- from a not-so-new job at a greasy diner across town- to the smell of food. Spaghetti, specifically. Kaia had successfully made them dinner, after several botched attempts; once even burning water. Sometimes she made it in big batches, keeping the sauce and noodles in separate containers in the fridge.

When they weren't having spaghetti, Patience and Kaia ate frozen dinners of bland tasting, soggy breaded chicken and half frozen mashed potatoes. The mysterious amber coloured dessert was supposed to take like apples. In reality, it tasted like cinnamon flavoured tire rubber. But tonight, it was spaghetti night. Patience sat herself on the far kitchen counter, across from the sink and to the farther right of Kaia. Patience watched as she got to cooking. She got out two pots, one larger and wider than the other. Filling that one with water, Kaia placed it on the back burner at medium heat. She set the other pot on the burner directly in front of her, grabbing the can opener from the cutlery drawer to her left.

The can made a cracking noise as Kaia worked the can opener around it. She threw the metal can lid in the trash, dumping the tomato sauce in the smaller pot. The water in the pot farther back was starting to bubble calmly. She opened the cardboard box of spaghetti, tipping the open side towards the pan and letting the stiff noodles fall smoothly into the water. It stuck up and out on one side, the spaghetti vaguely pointing towards to coffee machine. The noodles would disappear into the pot soon enough.

Kaia turned, looking above Patience's head at the small spices cupboard. To that day, neither one of them knew why Jody had chosen that spot. It was the highest place to put anything in the kitchen, even higher than the top of the fridge. They didn't know why they still kept things there, either. It just was what it was. Patience reached up, twisting her arms and hands to open the cupboard. She already knew what Kaia needed, pushing gently past the glass containers of dry salsa mix and all purpose seasoning for a small bottle of ground Italian spices. Then she stretched towards Kaia, handing it to her. They'd done this many times by now and established a solid spaghetti routine; there was no need for verbal requests or thank you's.

Eventually, the food was pretty much ready. Patience hopped off of the counter, walking to the living room. Grabbing the remote, she turned on the TV, making sure it was on the station that played old 1960's  _Looney Tunes_ cartoons among other older animated shows. These were a thing of Patience's childhood that had stuck with her, and that Kaia thought were kind of funny. Noticing the coded racism as an adult had taken some tint out of those rose-coloured glasses.

Kaia walked into the living room, a plate piled with spaghetti carrying a fork in each hand. Patience gave her a small smile as she handed one to her. They both settled into the couch, slowly working on the pasta as they watched Bugs Bunny mess with Daffy Duck. Neither one of them ate at the table anymore. It felt too much like  _then._ It would never be like then ever again, so why not spare yourself the humiliation of trying to recreate it altogether?

Patience and Kaia finished their dinner, stacking their plates on top of each other near Kaia's feet. Time passed, the moon moving in the sky outside. It went from mid-evening to midnight, Patience and Kaia still on the couch as Elmer Fudd waddled his way across the TV screen. Patience barely held onto consciousness. She wasn't sure if Kaia had fallen asleep or not. Part of her wanted to fall asleep here with Kaia. Another felt she was betraying someone or something.

But who? Alex was long gone. Claire was dead. Drowsily, Patience tried to put things into perspective: It'd been four years of this. Of spaghetti and cartoons and car tire dessert. She had waited a long time. She had felt pain, immense pain while waiting. She'd done what was considered "right." Now Patience was tired. Tired of holding onto something that was never coming back. This was slightly broken, and bland, bordering on mindbogglingly boring. But it was hers. Hers and Kaia's.

Slowly, Patience let her head fall onto Kaia's shoulder. She seemed to relax, let out a small sigh and sink further back into the couch, like someone had taken a huge weight off of her. Kaia let Patience's head stay there.


End file.
